“The media has a valuable contribution to make to share information about CSR endeavours”

President of Malta Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca delivered the opening speech at a conference organised by Fundazzjoni Tumas Fenech together with the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, entitled ‘CSR: Business, Journalism and Society’, at San Anton Palace.

The President said that during sessions of consultation held by the Foundation with diverse NGOs, many of these organisation expressed concerns that their activities were not being given sufficient media coverage, and that they could not afford to employ public relations specialists as part of their team, further stating her belief that “we must do more to motivate media representatives to respond to these concerns.”

President Coleiro Preca said that the media has “the important role to be a catalyst for education, information, and an objective and inclusive voice, especially on delicate and sensitive matters,” adding that the media, “as the fourth estate of democracy must maintain an ethical perspective which respects the dignity of all the members of society, at all times.”

The President said that, in this way, the media will be strengthening it own professional standards.

“Corporate social responsibility has the ability to create constructive links between the private sector and society”

President Coleiro Preca stated that the role of the media is necessary, to give visibility to this important two-way communication process. The President said that it is for this reason that corporations, civil society, and the media have a duty to collaborate with one another, and stated that this collaboration will inspire others to follow their example of social responsibility.

The media, the President said, can also act as a social conscience, by reminding corporations about the need to give back to society and to look beyond profits, by incorporating the principles of social justice in their work.

President Coleiro Preca said that CSR Strategies will be even more effective when they are linked with the mandate of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.

The President urged the private sector to continue taking up CSR initiatives which are inspired by Agenda 2030, by adopting the SDGs as part of their proactive approach to development and sustainability.

“I am equally convinced that the Maltese media has an equally powerful contribution to make, by working alongside businesses and civil society organisations, to give the SDGs the necessary visibility,” President Coleiro Preca said.

On concluding, the President stated that this united effort will empower the Maltese Islands to achieve our global responsibility: to effectively address inequalities and to end all forms of discrimination; to stop the degradation of our environment; and to safeguard the full inclusion and the active participation of each and every member of our society.